It is two months since FoF was released and not a whiff of any meaningful feedback despite over 120 downloads. In the old days, whenever I released an adventure I would start getting requests for help within a week or two - in those pre-internet days by letter or by telephone! I know I have provided in-game hints for FoF but the deafening silence is a bit worrying - is anyone actually PLAYING the game?

I don't know whether anyone is playing the games or not, but from a quick glance at the latest reviews panel on the main site, I see that since September 2012 there have only been 10 new reviews added – of which several appear to be old reviews (one is by Thomas Mulkerrins who I haven't seen on the forum in years so I doubt he was around last September posting reviews), and others are very, very short. Not really reviews at all really.

This issue goes back to the Feedback thread I started a couple of months ago (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8562) when I was wondering whether anyone was willing to provide feedback these days. I remember being a little disappointed at the lack of response to the thread – after all, we crave feedback, don't we? As we're not getting paid for writing these games, and we're never likely to benefit from them in any real world sense (no one's going to offer me a job based on a text adventure I wrote, no matter how much they liked it), feedback is pretty much all we're writing them for (and the warm glow of satisfaction from writing a great game, I guess, but the warm glow only goes so far when no one else is playing your game). But it seems that we're stuck in the vicious circle of everyone wanting people to review their games, but no one is willing to review anyone else's.

Is anyone actively reviewing games these days, or planning to? I remember Duncan Bowsman wrote quite a few reviews last year, but he seems to have gone quiet and not posted on the forum in months.

David Whyld wrote: But it seems that we're stuck in the vicious circle of everyone wanting people to review their games, but no one is willing to review anyone else's.

I felt a bit guilty when I read this, David, but I barely get any spare time to work on my own games, yet alone have the time to play AND review anyone else's....not that I am that good at reviewing. I played the games that were entered in the V5 Intro Comp last year and I did have a go at your own "Full Circle" - I think I got stuck and never got around to getting in touch to ask for help.

David Whyld wrote:I remember Duncan Bowsman wrote quite a few reviews last year, but he seems to have gone quiet and not posted on the forum in months.

I hadn't noticed that Duncan had been silent on the forum, in fact he hasn't visited the forum since December 27th - I hope he is OK?!

Thanks to Campbell for the poke about this thread. I'm still around, I just haven't logged in recently. That's right-- I've returned to lurker status.

I've been very active with ADRIFT and IF in general for the past couple years and I'm taking a bit of a break. I'm working two jobs at the moment and writing/publishing more of my static fiction. I've also been working on a graphical game project (involving me with another game community... and also playing their games to get a feel for the field, etc... they also want me to write reviews!). I probably should've given some heads up about that, mea culpa. For anyone who's worried, I have no intentions of abandoning ADRIFT. For anyone worried by *that* news... I don't know what to tell you. I am a weed that won't die.

I did do a bunch of reviewing last year, so it would be nice to see someone else take initiative on reviewing for a bit. We have 4 major games out in recent memory (Full Circle, Son of Camelot, Irvine Quik, and Fortress of Fear) that I haven't heard any feedback on within the ADRIFT community. That and I'm still waiting to hear back from the community on games I've published three and four years ago, too (still pretty sure nobody has completed Yon Astounding Castle). This lack of play is troubling, but pretty much par for the course in ADRIFT and hobbyist-driven IF in general, I suppose. Outreach it, dudes. If I hear other people start to talk about them or review some games, I will join in, but I just can't make it my top priority right now.

FWIW, I'm also stuck in Full Circle at the moment, so maybe a game discussion thread on that would be a good place to start.